Catholic World News
News Feature

In an interview with the Italian Petrus web site, Archbishop Albert Ranjith Patabendige, the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, acknowledged that the papal document, Summorum Pontificum, has been met in some dioceses with criticism and resistance. In some cases, the Sri Lankan prelate said, the hostility amounts to "rebellion against the Pope."

Reminding the interviewer, Bruno Volpe, that every bishop swears allegiance to the Roman Pontiff, Archbishop Ranjith said that "everyone, and particular every pastor, is called to obey the Pope, who is the successor to Peter." He called bishops to follow the papal directive faithfully, "setting aside all pride and prejudice."

Archbishop Ranjith complained that in some dioceses, bishops and their representatives have set out policies "inexplicably" limiting the scope of the Pope's motu proprio. He charged that the resistance to the Pope's policy has been driven by "on the one hand, ideological prejudices, and on the other hand pride-- one of the deadliest sins."

Early in October, in an address to the Latin Liturgy Association in the Netherlands, Archbishop Ranjith had delivered an equally blunt assessment of the response to Summorum Pontificum, saying that bishops were being "disobedient" to the Pope, and stifling the impact of the motu proprio by their policies. Diocesan bishops "do not have this right," he said, and bishops who defy the Pope's authority are allowing themselves "to be used as instruments of the devil."